Bank of America Credit Card

[Anonymous]

 I have a bank of america credit card. My mother is the primary and I'm secondary on the account. She wants to close the account and pay the card off. There is a balance of like 2500 on the acct. However she states her min. payments are like 116 however 80 dollars is going towards finance charges and not the principal balance. When she spoke with the company, they informed her that they can't close the account until the balance is paid off. She told them she is going to pay the card off, she just doesn't want them to keep adding finance charges that is eating up her payments to the point that she can't pay the card off. Is there any help for her?

[laz98]

can she pay more than the minimum payment?  can you help her out?

[alph4]

It seems the only reason I would close the card is if BoA rate-jacked your mother, in which case rejecting the change of terms and closing the account would keep the regular interest rate in-tact. However, short of affecting both you and your mother's scores, there is no way to just close the account and only pay principle. The interest rate applies to the balance you and/or your mother charged, and isn't canceled out just by closing the card.

For the sake of keeping your lines of credit, I would pay it off as fast as you can, adding even an extra dollar or two per month. Unless your interest rate was jacked from say 10% to 25%, in which case I would reject the terms and close the account, if I couldn't pay it off in a few months. 

[ma_fico]

Also, you need to explain to her that even if they closed the acct they would keep charging her interest.  That will go on until she's paid in full.